Ranked 48th in the FIFA World Rankings, the Republic of Ireland haven’t qualified for the World Cup in over 20 years, they didn’t win a single game in 2020, and in 2021 they lost 1-0 to Luxembourg.
It’s been a bleak few years then, but now there is a sneaking suspicion that something special might be on the horizon, thanks to the likes of Evan Ferguson at Brighton, Gavin Bazunu at Southampton, and Caoimhín Kelleher at Liverpool.
In this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at the state of soccer in Ireland, the future prospects of the national team, and whether this current crop of youngsters are worthy of the name ‘golden generation’.
49 Comments
You mean englands?
Really interesting that a couple of the players you mentioned were contracted to teams in Italy and one to a team in Spain. I wonder whether one of the impacts of the tightened English academy rules post-brexit will be more Irish players in the academies of Serie A/La Liga/Bundesliga teams?
As excited as I am I’m not sure with a few of your choices. Having watched these lads for years I don’t think johansson, adaramola, knight, Parrott or moran will make it to be premier league level players. People will look at Parrott and say he’s class but truly he lacks pace and a good first touch to cut it at the top level. Hopefully them lads prove me wrong obviously…
For the time being though I feel our best team for the next couple of years would be:
3-5-2 (Kenny’s way)
Bazunu
Doherty
Omabamidele
O’Shea
Collins
Manning
Cullen
Molumby
Azaz/Knight/Smallbone
Obafemi
Ferguson
Ones to watch you never featured:
Finn Azaz (technically superb)
Eiran Cashin (tidy defender)
Jack Taylor (Box to Box midfielder)
Luca Connell (tidy midfielder – however a bit on the short side)
Couple of other lads who may prove useful in the future would be Harry Vaughan at Hull City (2nd coming of Wes hoolahan😅) and Sinclair Armstrong at QPR(an absolute bull for his age).
Great content. Hopefully in a few years we’re proven right 🤞
Great video! And although I really appreciate that this video is 10 times better researched than most similar videos would be in relation to Ireland, there are certain nuances to the situation you are missing out on. This is completely understandable considering you are not Irish. I am Irish, and a 'soccer man' but you can't say that most people play soccer than gaelic football and then speak about government grants in terms of how much was given to the GAA – The GAA is the governing body of both gaelic football and hurling so to compare apples and oranges you would then have to compare how many people play GAA (both football and hurling) with how many play soccer. I do also believe that the participation numbers for soccer include casual players ie. 5 a side footballers. It's also important to note that many GAA players will play soccer in the winter to keep fit even though the GAA sports would be their priority by quite alot – the soccer would be seen as a bit of fun during the off season. These players are included in the official soccer player numbers but if you were to ask many of these they would describe themselves as GAA players and not soccer players. Lots more nuances but I could go on forever.
Great content as always but a handful of things I have to critique as an Irishman.
Luxembourg's population is a fraction of Dublin's that's something that is t easy to find out.
In regards to the GAA/ football divide it's far more a Rural/Urban divide than a wholeheartedly working class/Middle class divide
It's a fair assessment within Irish cities there's a middle class and working class divide when it comes to rugby and football (much like England I assume) but GAA far far less so
When it comes to eligibility to play for Ireland in the past was certainly more of a factor especially under John Delaney and who you've covered really well and pre Delaney his philosophy was I'll take the money there will always be some English fella with an Irish parent or grandparent who will do the job. Those days are thankfully gone.
These players who are Irish born with Nigerian parents for example is a massively different thing and in countries like England who have big immigrant population as well as second/third generation at this stage it wouldn't be framed the same way there's still that stigma with Irish teams it's changing now I'm not saying it wasn't a big factor 20 plus years ago.
But the current crop we have coming through, there is far less of those scenarios and that will only stand well for Irish football I believe, in years gone by you had too many players who had Irish heritage and wanted international caps but didn't have any real love or pride to play in a green shirt that is changing rapidly and the vast majority are now homegrown or at least have genuine reasons for why they want to play for Ireland. Anyways I've waffled on too long now
Keep up the great work enjoyed an Irish centric HITC video hopefully more to come 🤙
Alfie, long time Irish listener (as you know) and this is an excellent video. The treatment of Irish football here has for decades been a disgrace, and our long term approach to it has been to let English clubs develop our players, and this is a better expose than almost any Irish outlet has produced in that time (depressing). Also, GAA is not a middle class sport (small complaint) and you are dead right to not get into Irish unification (given your accent). Brilliant as always.
The Irish guy and Alfie brake up hit the Irish guy hard he's still hurting roughly a year on so he won't be able to watch this video without crying
Good video, but why did you keep calling it s*ccer?
The Winners of each Fifa Fair Play Award and the reasons why they won it
Smallbone will start he’s class
It's still insane that Ireland still doesn't have a fully professional first tier, the top league hasn't got even remotely close enough budgets compared to the interest in the game, unless this changes I don't see much changing outside of a lucky batch of players going through the english system.
The Irish FA should be pushing for a TV deal that can actually televise games properly as well as giving clubs grants to operate at a professional standard, at current most are banking on getting Europe money for when they qualify which can help the better clubs be professional somewhat.
No mention for Seamus Coleman when you speak of talented older players. He is a brilliant player I am sure younger players can learn a lot from him
Who caught the Indeed joke? Brillante ✨
Talk about "homework done"! Ya nailed it!
DAY 1 : Malaysia XI if all eligible players declared for them
Lmaooo two goal keepers
League of ireland is terrible nothing more then feeder League.
As someone Scottish… Oi!
Day 2: The despot president of Bangladesh Football Federation
A lot of suspiciously Nigerian surnames in this Irish side
Nigeria feeds Ireland
Diversity obviously helps. Someone show this to Scotland
you do know that dara o''shea can play richtback
I went primary with Evan, I knew that boy was gonna be special from young. I even played at Belvo with Troy
One nitpick is that GAA is far more working class than Football
Obafemi is gonna break out soon with Burnley. He’ll be another striker Ireland has to call up
Great video! Maybe you have some data around the GAA that I don't know. But the GAA isn't really middle class in terms of perception here, but maybe a bit more rural, but just as "working class" as soccer. Also for participation rates, it isn't a great comparison as I think soccer (football) rates include all codes of the sport (so five a side indoor counts), GAA does not really provide for stripped down versions of the sport like how soccer does. There are stripped down versions but they're almost exclusively for small kids or adapted for playing in other sports pitches for exhibition games. If you were to look at the participation rates of children from 12 to 17 and adults from 18 – 30 I'd say the playing populations would be very similar, with lots of kids playing both. Side note, for around about 70 years though GAA players couldn't play or even watch "foreign sports" or they'd be banned. Some places had "Vigilance Committees" that went out and attended cricket games, or rugby or whatever and made a note of who was there.
Great video and well researched but there’s just no way that more people play soccer in Ireland than Gaelic Football.. no chance
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Irish Guy just liked the video.
Oh look, its the England B Team – Mike Bassett England Manager
Great video, but the GAA is certainly not middle class, every small village and parish in the county has a GAA club which is the centre of almost all rural communities. Rugby would definitely be considered the most middle class sport
gotta have ebosele of udinese at right back instead of johannsen
evan ferguson will be eligible for the 2027 u21 euros haha
no mention of festy obesole of udinese or cathal heffernan ac milan
Republic of Ireland has 5.2 million people and another 2 million people in Northern Ireland who can play for Ireland too. Over 7 million not including a 70 million diaspora!
You forget one good player Anselmo García MacNulty who plays for NAC Breda (Eerste Divisie) on loan from VfL Wolfsburg who played for Ireland U19
r.i.p Irish guy
This came out nicely around the time of the rebrand
Haven't been overly impressed by Johannson's progression since declaring but still young…hopefully comes good. Liam Kerrigan at Como an exciting winger, and Mikey Johnston too hopefully reach their potential. Great Video!
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7 best clubs to get relegated
The fact that ireland were higher than the world cup runner ups and american champions tells you all you need to know about the fifa world rankings
Talking shit about McLean when you could've used 100 other examples. No surprise. Sound of your voice doing my head in anyway
pretty sure your friend and former colleague made a video about a new irish golden age sometime ago but i think some people prolly took it with a bit of a pinch of salt
Bit harsh on Egypt and Scotland tbf, who are both pretty good atm.
It can only be a golden generation if we win anything, which, spoiler alert, we never will. Yes we have really good goalkeepers, but none of our outfield players are worth a shite.
Think you should do a best 11 of ex hull players that are still player for other teams Robertson Maguire and Bowen immediately spring to mind
So the secret is bringing African players like France has done the last 30 years. Sad